Against the Dying of the Light

Posted by sohmer on October 23, 2013

Seems like everywhere you turn these days on the internet, there’s one crusade or another going on. Someone’s upset about something, someone else said something or didn’t say something. Or even the worst possible offense of them all, another human being has a different point of view.

In those cases, there’s always a few people calling for a boycott or others calling for someone to be fired. Or publicly shamed. Or shot.

For the most part, I tend to stay quiet in most of these matters. Not inactive mind you, just quiet.

When it comes to matters such as these, I believe in two things – Denying attention and the power of my wallet.

Generally speaking, people who do and say dumb shite are doing it out of ignorance or to garner attention. Both instances fall into my ‘don’t care’ category, and I don’t pay them any mind.

There are occasions though, where things fall into the ‘hate speech’ category. When those incidents pop up, and I’m in the position to do something about it, I do, in my own small way.

Take the Winter Olympics in Russia for example.

Like many of you, I’m quite horrified at the treatment of gays by the Russian government and citizens. They’re being denied basic human rights and as usual, the world turns a blind eye to it.

I’m not going to tell you I’m going to boycott the Olympics because of it. That’s the emptiest of empty threats; I wasn’t going to watch the Olympics anyways. I could tell you that I will no longer compete on the men’s curling team for Canada, but likewise, pretty empty. Plus, Curling’s not even a real thing.

Instead, I plan on wearing a rainbow pride bracelet for the duration of the games and talk about the issues as much as I possibly can. That’s what I can do, and will.

On the other side of things, Ender’s Game is coming to movie theaters shortly and the calls for a boycott are rather loud.

I won’t be joining any large scale effort, as angry internet mobs are more frightening to me than a conservative Christian who spends his money trying to deny the rights of men and women to marry each other. But, I do control my own wallet and there’s power in that.

Ender’s Game is a movie that I’ve been dying to see for a couple decades, but I won’t be seeing it when it comes out. I’ll use my voice and my wallet.

The point of this mini essay is twofold-

One; We all have the power to stand against any injustice we perceive in this world.

Two; Don’t be so quick to be offended and even quicker to get riled up – sometimes ignoring the crazy is louder than raging against it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some dick jokes to write.

-Because I Can.

Quote of the Day

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”– Buddha